My experiences with donations...
I have a friend who manages a bakery thrift store. She used to make donations of good but expired bread, but then she would get tons of calls constantly asking for more. There was no way should would know from one day to the next what she might have. They would get mad when she said she didn't have bread available for donation or only had a couple of extra loaves. A few places even started getting picky about the KIND of bread they wanted. It was infuriating. So then she just stopped donating all together.
Instead, when she gets a surplus, she calls me and I take the bread to a church food pantry (I know the lady who runs it). I explained to her the situation, and that I could make no promises as to when, what and how much I could bring. They were appreciative and did not care about the type of bread, just very grateful for what I could donate. They are always happy to see me and help me unload.
Contrast that to a time I went to donate a load of surplus bread to a mission. It was snowing, I tried to find someone to tell me where to leave the bread, nobody would even acknowledge I was there. I finally just started grabbing boxes and stacked a bunch of stuff inside the door. As I was finishing someone finally did come by, act annoyed that I was interrupting his routine, and didn't even say thank you for the 200lbs of bread I just unloaded myself. Needless to say, I never donate there anymore.
I also used to donate to a woman's shelter. I called them once and told them my friend had 10 cases of poptarts, 20 loafs of whole wheat bread and a couple cases of muffins and asked if they could use them. Once they understood these items were in good condition and coming from a reputable bakery, we made arrangements for me to drop it off at a location away from the shelter. Went great, the lady picking it up was appreciative and thankful, and I felt fantastic knowing I was helping out.
Fast forward to last year. I had a similar lot of items available along with a bunch of hats, scarves, toys, etc. I tried to contact the shelter and couldn't reach them by phone. I found their website and tried to contact them through there. Then I found a page that said they could no longer accept in kind donations. Call me stupid, but I had no idea what "in kind" meant. A friend explained that it meant they only wanted cash. Well gee, I want cash too. I don't always have it but still want to help those who need a hand. All that stuff (the hats and other knit stuff we NEW) ended up at the food pantry. I now exclusively donate to the one place that seems to understand gratitude.
